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My primary musical goal over the holiday's was to listen to Scarlatti. Of course I am familiar with his music but I never spent the time to truly appreciate the scope and depth of his works, until now. I spent hours listening to dozens of his sonatas (many several times) and have now truly come to appreciate his genius. Great stuff. I particularly liked the performances of Pletnev, Horowitz, Pogorelich and Yuja Wang (but then again I love everthing Yuja plays).

I developed a list of favorites and will be learning them in the coming months. And I still have many sonatas to listen to!

In any case, for those of you who play Scarlatti, what are some of your favorites? I would love to check them out.

For toccata-like brilliance, there's the D minor Kk141; for beauty, the B minor Kk27; for Spanish guitar fun, the E major Kk380; another E major beauty is Kk531.

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."

Regarding Scarlatti -- some have said that time is better spent on Bach, but I think Scarlatti holds a world of joy and challenge that is - almost - approachable with limited skills. Scarlatti's music is perhaps some of the most under-appreciated or, at least, under-exposed music which contains an omnipresent joie de vivre not found with any other composer I can think of.

In the right hands I'm a sucker for Scarlatti, and Horowitz, Gilels and Tipo top my list of Scarlatti interpreters.

Mark_C
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Registered: 11/11/09
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Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: Entheo

Regarding Scarlatti -- some have said that time is better spent on Bach....

Of course we need both!

Quote:

....but I think Scarlatti holds a world of joy and challenge that is - almost - approachable with limited skills....

Musically, yes. Pianistically, IMO absolutely not, unless we're talking only about the "slow" pieces. Let me say this: At amateur competitions, unless we're not 'really' amateurs we die a lot faster with Scarlatti than with Bach! Scarlatti shows our pianistic imperfections quicker and more starkly than almost any other composer, maybe absolutely any other besides Mozart, maybe even more so.

Mark_C
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Registered: 11/11/09
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Loc: New York

Some of my favorite Scarlatti recordings are on instruments other than piano....or harpsichord either. Like, guitar or (especially) synthesizer. I tried to find an online recording of something from the early LP, "The Well Tempered Synthesizer," by Walter/Wendy Carlos, which has splendid renditions of (I think) 4 Scarlatti sonatas. Couldn't find that, but here's a sample from someone else's very good attempt at a rendition along the same line (on one of the same sonatas that Carlos did):

I recall once reading that Chopin had a particular fondness toward Scarlatti. I did some research and found this quote:

Frederic Chopin, as a piano teacher, notably worte: "Those of my dear colleagues who teach the piano are unhappy that I make my own pupils work on Scarlatti. But I am surprised that they are so blinkered. His music contains finger exercises aplenty and more than a touch of the most elevated spirituality. Sometimes he is even a match for Mozart. If I were not afraid of incurring the disapprobation of numerous fools, I would play Scarlatti at my concerts. I maintain that the day will come when Scarlatti's music will often be played at concerts and that audiences will appreciate and enjoy."

Well, I'm not sure how true the quote is but I think it underscores Scarlatti's brillance.

pianoloverus
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I've listened to a lot of Scarlatti but I'd guess I've only heard 50-100 of his Sonatas since certain ones tend to get most of the coverage. So I've heard only 10-20% of his Sonatas. Imagine if one said that about Beethoven or Mozart.

I've read through and listened to a considerable amount of Scarlatti (and I've still probably only covered 10% of them :D) and I've found quite a few pieces that I wish would be played more commonly, rather than some of his other Sonatas:K. 46 (L. 25)k. 105 (L. 204)K. 116 (L. 452)K. 119 (L. 415)K. 132 (L. 457)

The only one she has played in public, or at least to the best of my knowledge.

Argerich's repertoire is supposedly HUGE, but relatively little of it seems to see the light of day. There are reports of her blazing through the Liszt 'Mephisto' at parties, but I cannot trace any live performances. I should not be surprised if she plays many more Scarlatti sonatas than the one treasure we have.

I have loved Scarlatti since a boy, his music is infinitely fascinating to me. Adding up my recordings, those I have heard in concert, the few I played, and many more that I sightread through, I'm barely running 40 of the total.

One can only imagine the riches I must be missing out on. I think they're like the Haydn string quartets and piano trios: I have only heard a few of those, but every instance had something unique to communicate. Too much music, so little time.

Maria Tipo may be underrated, but I remember back in the 70s two discs (LPs) of her Scarlatti were released by Ricordi, and the classical reviewer for Time thought they were the best piano records of the year. Unfortunately, the reviewer had virtually no knowledge of Italian, and translated "Dischi Ricordi" as "Dischi Records." The few people I knew who were traveling to Italy at that time were unable to locate the records because of that, and it was years before I found them. It was worth the wait; she definitely has her own voice that comes through in the music.

_________________________
There is no end of learning. -Robert Schumann Rules for Young Musicians

Maria Tipo may be underrated, but I remember back in the 70s two discs (LPs) of her Scarlatti were released by Ricordi, and the classical reviewer for Time thought they were the best piano records of the year. Unfortunately, the reviewer had virtually no knowledge of Italian, and translated "Dischi Ricordi" as "Dischi Records." The few people I knew who were traveling to Italy at that time were unable to locate the records because of that, and it was years before I found them. It was worth the wait; she definitely has her own voice that comes through in the music.

Maria Tipo may be underrated, but I remember back in the 70s two discs (LPs) of her Scarlatti were released by Ricordi, and the classical reviewer for Time thought they were the best piano records of the year. Unfortunately, the reviewer had virtually no knowledge of Italian, and translated "Dischi Ricordi" as "Dischi Records." The few people I knew who were traveling to Italy at that time were unable to locate the records because of that, and it was years before I found them. It was worth the wait; she definitely has her own voice that comes through in the music.

Sadly, these two LP records have never been re-edited in CD format and that's a shame because they are amazing as you say. Someone had the kindness to upload them on YouTube. Here is the playlist :

About K32, yes, I meant the piano teachers don't assign this piece often to the students. I know the piece has been performed : Inger SÃ¶dergren has played it, Maria Tipo has recorded it at least two times and Michael Lewin has recorded it too.

If you are interested in discovering more of the Scarlatti sonatas, Naxos is currently recording a complete set. There are 14 volumes already. Each volume is played by a different pianist. I strongly recommend these CDs, they are very good music with several underplayed sonatas.

I don't know who is playing the harpsichord on these - Scott Ross, maybe?

Thank you for the links. To my knowledge, there are only two complete sets on harpsichord : Scott Roos and Pieter-Jan Belder. So if the recordings in these links are all made by the same performer, I guess it could be one of these.

Normally, someone starts a debate on whether one prefers these Sonatas played on the harpsichord or piano (or guitar, or harp, or ukelele...), but as nobody has started it yet, I'll say that I don't like the harpsichord in Scarlatti (nor in Bach, except as a continuo instrument ), and of the several CDs I've got, all are played on piano.

Pletnev is my favorite, followed by Christian Zacharias and Yevgeny Sudbin.

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."